Piano pieces inspiring church scores (7)
I believe the answer is:
notches
'piano pieces' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'inspiring church scores' is the wordplay.
'inspiring' is an insertion indicator.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'scores' becomes 'notes' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ch' put into 'notes' is 'NOTCHES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for notches that I've seen before include "V-Shaped cuts or indentations" , "Makes small indentation in" , "Nicks" , "Small v-shaped cuts" , "Small indentations found on chest" .)